New idea for heat lamp control, I think

[Chicken_D]

In practice for the arrival of my chicks I have been adjusting the brooder lamp trying to zero in on the recommended 95 degree starting temperature. Started out with a heat lamp and found out that was going to be too much for them. Then I tried several different light bulbs ranging from 40 to 100 watts. Finally settled on the 40 watt bulb because the thermometer settled out at about 95 degrees and remained constant. My chicks arrived Thursday morning and I kept an eye on them and how they were reacting to the light. They acted as though they were always cold being all huddled up in such a small group. I really wanted to put the heat lamp back in but was afraid they would cook due to not being able to get the heat source far enough away from them in the brooder. Then it hit me, I went to the local Lowe's store and bought an inline dimmer switch and put the heat lamp on that. Now I can adjust the power going to the heat lamp and get the correct setting for my girls to be comfortable just with the slide of a button. No more bunching up of the girls, they look happy now.

If this has been mentioned before I apolgize, but I've been reading this forum for about a year and a half and have never seen it mentioned before.

Chicken_D

PS - almost finish with the coop and will post later with a lot of pictures from start to finish. But for now I need to be working on the coop and not on the forum.

 

[A.J.'s]

I hate to say it, but I discovered that years ago.. but didnt it feel so grand when you figured that out? haha
I remember how proud of myself I was. so i guess I should not have told you, but i wanted to validate that feeling of genius I had and for you.. you did figure it out for yourself. so that makes you genius just like me. hahhahaha

 

[patandchickens]

Silkiechicken (moderator) has been doing it for years

but yes, it is a good idea

Pat, contemplating wiring a dimmer on the new brooder I am building, but possibly too lazy

 

[scarter]

Great idea. It's good to keep putting out that info for us new people.

 

[pascopol]

A.J.'s :

I hate to say it, but I discovered that years ago.. but didnt it feel so grand when you figured that out? haha
I remember how proud of myself I was. so i guess I should not have told you, but i wanted to validate that feeling of genius I had and for you.. you did figure it out for yourself. so that makes you genius just like me. hahhahaha

I mentioned the idea of using dimmer on 250W heat lamp or any other lamp, few times on this forum, I am sure other people did too.
I never claimed this is anything "new".

It does not take a genius to figure that one out.

LOL​

 

[vicegrip]

Me my self never thought of it but good one.

 

[Backyard Farm]

Great info for newbies!!

I have a same set-up for my brooder and my grow pen for winter... but never thought to mention it.

I know MANY folks who are just learning about all of this will be thankful for your post!!

 

[homeschoolmama]

Great idea- I'm totally new at all this-got my chickie babies last Thursday and they all seem great. I've been trying to figure out how to raise the heat lamp-don't really have anything higher than the side of their brooder contraption that I've slapped together. So when you say an in line dimmer-you wired it into the electrical cord? I'm just using a plug-in, clamp-on reflector-bungie corded super securely so it won't get knocked off. They seem to like sleep ( cracks me up how they sleep!) under the lamp still but move around a lot too. They have lots of space to get away from the heat if they want to. They are in the garage and its snowing outside today-Happy Easter to us! About typical around here for Spring to come and go-thankful for any precip here in AZ tho. Last week (day 2 having them here) we had a bunch of wind and a little snow and the electricity was flickering and I was fretting that we'd have no electricity sometime in the middle of the night and the babies would perish while I slept-but luckily that didn't happen.
Love this sight I'm learning so much but not getting much done around the house !
Regina

 

[loopityloop]

We spent a heap of time trying to get the temp correct. I'll have to pass this onto my husband! lol.